“One reads books in order to gain the privilege of living more than one life….”
“Instant obedience will teach you more about God than a lifetime of Bible discussions.”
Source: The Purpose Driven Life: What on Earth Am I Here for?
“Closing your mind to religion is no different than the close-mindedness that
religions can cause.”
Source: Satan Burger
“Anger is stupid, and stupidity will kill you more surely than your opponent's blade.”
Source: Dragon Bones
“Most people would rather be certain they're miserable, than risk being happy.”
“It's cold out there, colder than a ticket taker's smile at the Ivar Theatre on a Saturday night.”
“Imagination and fiction make up more than three quarters of our real life.”
“I like the silent church before the service begins, better than any preaching.”
1840s, Essays: First Series (1841), Self-Reliance
Source: Self-Reliance and Other Essays
Context: But now we are a mob. Man does not stand in awe of man, nor is his genius admonished to stay at home, to put itself in communication with the internal ocean, but it goes abroad to beg a cup of water of the urns of other men. We must go alone. I like the silent church before the service begins, better than any preaching.
“It is strange how few people make more than a casual cult of enjoying Nature.”
Source: The Meaning of Culture (1929), p. 178
Source: A Glastonbury Romance
Context: It is strange how few people make more than a casual cult of enjoying Nature. And yet the earth is actually and literally the mother of us all. One needs no strange spiritual faith to worship the earth.
“I feel no need for any other faith than my faith in human beings.”
This I Believe (1951)
Context: I believe in human beings, but my faith is without sentimentality. I know that in environments of uncertainty, fear, and hunger, the human being is dwarfed and shaped without his being aware of it, just as the plant struggling under a stone does not know its own condition. Only when the stone is removed can it spring up freely into the light. But the power to spring up is inherent, and only death puts an end to it. I feel no need for any other faith than my faith in human beings.
“People who say that yesterday was better than today are ultimately devaluing their own existence.”
“Friends can make you feel that the world is smaller and less sneaky than it really is.”
“A friend who is far away is sometimes much nearer than one who is at hand.”
“A bully fights people littler and weaker than he is because he thinks it's fun.”
Source: Alanna: The First Adventure
Pudd'nhead Wilson's New Calendar, Ch. XV
Misquoted as "Why shouldn’t truth be stranger than fiction? Fiction, after all, has to make sense." by Laurence J. Peter in "Peter’s Quotations: Ideas for Our Time", among many others.
Following the Equator (1897)
Source: Following the Equator: A Journey Around the World
“I'd rather be thin than famous
but I'm fat
paste that in your broadway show”
Source: Mexico City Blues
